G-P demolition signals end of an era

April 05, 2013|By Chris Engle, Staff Writer

HT - Chris Engle

GAYLORD — What was once Georgia-Pacific (G-P), the sprawling particle board plant that influenced Gaylord’s Alpine motif, spurred Alpenfest and was one of the town’s biggest employers for decades, is now being reduced to rubble and scrap metal.

For the past two weeks, heavy equipment has been stripping metal siding off several structures at the former manufacturer and exposing the buildings’ inner steel framework. What has been done so far is visible from the plant’s entrance at Milbocker Road but is most evident along Dickerson Road, where railroad crossings have sat rusting since corporate officials closed the plant’s doors March 6, 2006.

The sudden closure resulted in 210 layoffs — 167 hourly workers and 43 salaried workers. Paid hourly wages ranged from $15 to $20 an hour. As many as 50 employees were expected to be kept on through April or early May 2006 to finish shipping orders, according to Herald Times archives.

“It was a big loss, it was a terrible shock,” Richard Sumerix, commissioner for Otsego County’s District 6, including Bagley Township, recalled of the closure. “It will look strange when it’s gone.”

The plant, most notably its orange- and white-striped chimney, has been a significant part of Gaylord’s skyline. When Sumerix took flying lessons in the 1970s over the Boyne Mountain area, steam rising from the stack served as reference for the direction back to Gaylord Regional Airport.

Bagley Township Supervisor Bill Giles said G-P plans to tear down all the buildings and attempt to sell the vacant land.

“Our hope is that a developer buys the property and uses it,” Giles said, noting there have been significant efforts and talks with prospective buyers since the plant closed but deals have always fallen through.

“We’ve been disappointed about two or three times out there,” Giles said.

A spokesperson for Otsego County Land Use Services said G-P is in the process of obtaining permits for demolition.

The plant’s impact went beyond skylines and much needed jobs when it opened in 1965 as U.S. Plywood.

“There is a strong and direct connection between U.S. Plywood coming to Gaylord and our creation of the Alpine theme,” said Otsego County Historical Society volunteer Phil Alexander, who credits local businessman Gordon Everett with initiating a “Tyrolean” theme one year earlier.

The theme took on more of an Alpine style with the influence of Swiss industrialist Fred Fahrni, holder of the patent for Novoply, the type of particle board made at the plant. Fahrni established Gaylord’s sister-city relationship with Pontresina, Switzerland, Alexander said.

In 1958, more than 100 businesspeople formed the Gaylord Industrial Development Committee to aggressively seek and promote industry under the leadership of Gaylord State Bank president Harold Elgas.

In August 1963, U.S. Plywood announced it would build a $5 million plant here.

The plant produced its first board on April 16, 1965, and Gaylord held its first Alpine Festival — now Alpenfest — that July to celebrate the town’s new look and anticipated economic boost from the new employer. Souvenir wooden nickels for the festival were minted on wooden blanks punched from boards made at U.S. Plywood, and Fahrni assisted with the establishment of several Alpenfest traditions, according to Alexander.

“What might appear to be simply the demolition of a vacated manufacturing plant was once a source of great hope, accomplishment and community spirit,” Alexander said. “If you were just driving by and watching that get torn down today, you wouldn’t know what a significant impact that had on this community. This was a major milestone in the history of Otsego County.”

U.S. Plywood merged with Champion International in the 1970s and later became part of Georgia-Pacific Corporation. Koch Industries purchased G-P in 2005.

Numerous calls to G-P by the Herald Times for comment on this story or details of demolition plans were not returned.